Samuel Barber was an American composer of orchestral\
, opera\, and choral and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated com
posers of the 20th century\, and was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for
music\, for his opera Vanessa (1956-57) and his Concerto for Piano and Orc
hestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (194
7)\, a work for soprano and orchestra\, which sets a prose text by James A
gee.\nSoprano Julia Broxholm has a career that spans opera to Broadw
ay\, oratorio to vocal chamber music\, and recitalist to recording artist.
Her operatic roles have included Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff\, the tit
le role in Floyd’s Susannah\, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro\, Nor
ina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme.